How Much Do Consumers Care About Product Safety When Buying Products?

When product designers set forth to create specifications for a new product, they’ll almost certainly do so with an eye towards safety. That’s for two reasons. First, they’re by and large decent humanitarians who don’t want anybody to get hurt using their products. Second, they know that modern day consumers are an especially litigious people and if something does go wrong, the company could be looking at the business end of a very expensive lawsuit.

However, it’s still in management’s best interest to know how much consumers care about product safety. That’s not because they want to cut corners on safety to maximize profitability, but because all good management wants to know as much as possible about people in their target market.

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The Hoverboard Problem

Hoverboards are self-balancing scooters that don’t really hover at all. They were a bit of craze late in 2015, just in time for the Christmas season.

It’s safe to say that when any product self-ignites, it’s not very safe for use. As of this writing, dozens of such cases have been reported. Although no people have died, a couple of dogs died in a house fire that’s thought to have been started by a charging hoverboard.

Amazon is a vendor of hoverboards because Amazon is a vendor of practically everything. When news reached the company’s management that some hoverboards were flammable, Amazon took action that can only be applauded.

In December, Amazon asked hoverboard manufacturer Swagway to provide documentation confirming that hoverboard batteries and chargers met safety standards. Swagway assured the e-commerce giant that its boards passed those tests and sent the appropriate proof to Amazon.